A 2 hour class by Chief Luisah Teish

In HOUR ONE...

AN APPROACH: Learn a Chief elder’s approach to recovering, re-interpreting and making cultural and spiritual practice in the wake of devastating cultural loss, slavery and oppression.

In this class, Chief Teish will speak about her journey and use her influential book “Jambalaya:The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals” to provide practical advice on how we can approach cultural and spiritual recovery in a just, personal and impactful way.

++A PRACTICAL TOOL & VISUALIZATION: Cheif Teish will SHare some of the ways in which she helps others in their cultural and spiritual recovery.

In HOUR TWO...

Deeper in the modules:

This class is a part of "At the Crossroads: Finding Your Purpose". Chief Teish will address questions from participants in "At the Crossroads: Finding Your Purpose". Guest participants who have not enrolled in "At the Crossroads" are welcome to stick around!

Once you sign up, we will send you the link on the day of the class.

PRICE: $12

PS: If you have purchased "At the Crossroads: Finding Your Purpose", this class is already included in the package. No need to re-purchase. We will send you your link. If you are interested in purchasing "At the Crossroads: Finding Your Purpose", this class will be included in your package.

Many of us believe that we need to recover indigenous cultural and spiritual practice in order to build more balanced communities. Yet, the process of recovery is extremely challenging. It requires good judgement, discernment, critical engagement and sometimes unwavering faith.

Here are some of the questions we will be asking Chief Teish:

What do we keep? What do we leave behind?

Some practices deemed “indigenous” were used to oppress some of us, whereas other aspects were used to hold and build us. How do we tell the difference?

How and when do we change, add, or re-interpret in our own contexts?

Many practices are falsely considered to be “static” and absolute. Yet, cultural fabrics were always meant to be rewoven, re-considered and co-created through time. How do we honor our elders while continuing to co-create our own practices?

How do we remember or find the practices forgotten, erased or stolen from us?

Some of us feel like our slates were wiped clean and our knowledge severely erased. How do we go about remembering what we need to know when we have so little information to start with or base our findings on?

How do we engage in a just intra-cultural exchange?

Appropriation is everywhere and indigenous practice and knowledge are bought and sold without proper consent or remuneration. Yet there are ways to respectfully engage with traditions that are not fully our own. How do we do that?

“I am able to gather the bits and pieces of my experience and weave for you a web, representative of the winding path I followed to arrive at this place. To you it seems comprehensive. But you must know that there was a time when I had no idea who I was becoming... “- Chief Luisah Teish, Jambalaya:The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals

THE POWER OF DIAPOSRA AND ITS ROLE IN CULTURAL RECOVERY

We see the space of diaspora as both fraught with pain and filled with possibility.

Although diaspora for many of us is defined by violent rupture from ‘home’ (willed or unwilled, fled or forced), it is also the space where the notion of ‘home’ is questioned, meditated upon, re-evaluated, re-visioned and perhaps returned to it’s most balanced essence.

Diaspora can be dangerously romanticized:

By the capitalist: believed to be a more progressive evolution into a homogenized, industrial, capitalist (White) “West”

By the liberal: seen solely as a place of liberation from outdated notions of home and cultural practice into a more “advanced” way of life

We are not interested in this kind of romanticization.

In fact, we see and define Diaspora as: the space in-between. The liminal, creative space (not necessarily geo-politically defined) but formed through an active interlinking of people that choose (or are lead or even forced) to meet in the space in-between. People that embody and espouse different positions by virtue of having different socio-geo-political experiences and perspectives, YET are connected to each other by shared story and culturally lived experience (or hystory, from the root hysteria / the womb / the source). And we acknowledge that this definition is expansive enough to allow for many iterations of diaspora.

We believe that indigenous cultural recovery is just as painful and challenging as it is rewarding. It involves reckoning with loss, building, maintaining or re-evaluating difficult relationships, heated interpersonal debates around power and privilege, the awareness of latent needs, desires and frustrations brought about by colonial violence. But we know that nothing worth recovering will come easy.

We believe that establishing a way to walk with indigenous recovery in diaspora is at the heart of Baladé Black’s mission. And we see the space of Diaspora (as we have defined it) to be a place of great opportunity for the recovery of a just and balanced ‘home.’

WHY CHIEF LUISAH TEISH?

Chief Teish’s groundbreaking book Jambalaya (and her life journey of indigenous cultural recovery) is an incredible case study and testament to the possibilities of re-envisioning a more just and balanced home. It pulls from spaces of inherited culture, combined with newly acquired culture to create a personally specific and effective way of relating to the worlds we live and breath in.

Luisah Teish: Artist, Activist, Yoruba Chief Priestess.

Luisah Teish is a renowned Yoruba priestess and chief. She has achieved one of the highest orders of chieftancy in the Yoruba tradition and is extremely well versed in multiple indigenous healing modalities. Teish is the author of many books, including the famous and revered Jambalaya: The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals, which serves as a resource for thousands of women worldwide looking to develop an indigenous, culturally specific practice. What makes Teish unique is her ability to combine the political, cultural, creative and spiritual in her approach to healing and transforming others. To her, these identities were never meant to be separate. She is an organizer: in the civil rights era and all throughout her life as a local San Francisco Bay Area social and environmental activist. She danced in the company of the great Madame Katherine Dunham (1968-71). She has lead massive communal rituals for social change. Luisah Teish is a radical force to be reckoned with and a genius of the African diaspora. She continues to challenge outdated practices and inspire justice where we all need it.

Once you sign up, we will send you the link on the day of the class.

PRICE: $12

PS: If you have purchased "At the Crossroads: Finding Your Purpose", this class is already included in the package. No need to re-purchase. We will send you your link. If you are interested in purchasing "At the Crossroads: Finding Your Purpose" this class will be included in your package.